The Midnight Library: The 2017 Comicon Report

I was having too much fun running around with my guest and friends, and not playing photographer. But both Eric Schneider and Bob Stein - and others! - sent me far more photos. I've added them in a bunch at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Diana was here!

Here we go with the 2017 Clallam Bay Convention Report!

First of all, we have Diana Kennedy, our special guest, all the way from Vosges, France - which was so excited about her traveling to another tiny community that sponsors the comic arts that they bought her plane ticket for her!

Lion Mike and Diana

Despite being attacked in Paris for her luggage - where she thought she'd had her passport stolen - she found the passport in her apartment and arrive on time. She was very touched and surprised when Clallam Bay townspeople asked if she was all right.

She shared her wonderful hand-animated "The Vosgian Beast," which also ran silently for the rest of the convention, providing a lively background to the show.

Two years' work! More to come.

Diana presented a banner from the Vosges Lion's CLub to the Clalalm Bay/Sekiu Lion's club, where the event was held. The Vosges Lion's Club was delighted to hear about the connection, and had paid for her visa and passport. In return, the CB/S Lion's Club gave her beautiful enameled pins to take back to her own Lion's Club.

She's written her own version of the trip, and it has a translation button. It's highly enjoyable (although I need to point out I can only generally "interpret" totem poles - nothing under the surface).

Jake and Modest Medusa

On both days of the comicon, a drawing was held for a $15 3-foot half-table for the 2018 Clallam Bay Comicon, compliments on Saturday of Lime Media Hawaii, on Sunday of Combine Magazine. The tables were won by minicomics master Larry Lewis, and Jake Richmond, writer/artist/publisher of Modest Medusa.

Hee haw!

Diana then presented a beautiful donkey drawing to Eric Schneider, who had helped so much with the Gofundme campaign to find more cash for her to enjoy her stay in the United States.

Sugar Rush! Roberta & Diana

We all had to attend the Fun-Days parade. Nobody managed to catch a Red-Hats jello shot, which is just as well - those things are loaded with Everclear! All the parade units, no matter how large, small or crazy, throw dangerous amounts of candy - and Diana was right in there participating in this wonderful if very bad American habit.

The only way to print.

Of course, I must represent with my Ka-Blam Comics shirt. If you want to print floppy comics at nearly 1980's prices - and Print on Demand, gorgeous quality and color - you go to Ka-blam. Their sales page is Indyplanet.com - and they've finally added a neat little menu to drop down for any search.

I'd been crocheting Resist hats out of left-over yarn, and gave everybody one. Got a shot of Larry, Diana and Anne Bean, of Emerald City Distribution, looking fabulous. Diana and Anne wore theirs the whole convention - and Anne looked especially fetching! Looks like she'll be representing my books with local comics shops.

At the parade!

Alice Ryan, who was our first local dealer ever, showed how to make wire crowns. Diana will go back to France with a lovely silver-and-pink-flower fantasy. She also specializes in very professional leatherwork, including fantasy hats and animal heads with jointed moving parts. Her son ran a kid's gaming event that was enjoyed by adults, too.

Meow!

After the show was over on Saturday, many of the friends and dealers went down to the Clallam Bay Inn, for the annual beer-n-fish-n-chips feast. Barkeep and cook Edna made sure everyone had cold pitchers of beer, and hot, juicy, perfectly-fried fish.

Then off to the beach for the Fun Days fireworks! This year, the ongoing battle between the amateurs and the professionals lasted until midnight, outlasting those of us who had traveled so far. Folks managed to find last-minute places to stay in a town crammed with visitors for Fun Days, even discovering a campsite with laundry and showers behind Sam's RV Park. Comics folk are resoruceful!

Fun for kids! And everyone.

On Sunday, Larry Lewis presented "Minicomics In All Their Glory." He brought paper and other tools, and taught how to make the small copier-based comics that everybody in the industry has done to get started.

The show ended with Modest Medusa creator Jake Richmond, who spoke about how easy - and how hard! - self-publishing is. The audience - comics and gaming professionals themselves - ended his talk with an intense discussion of past and present methods of using webcomics, Kickstart, Patreon, Print On Demand and social media to find and grow an audience. Everyone agrees that comics takes a lot of work, but it's worth it. There was time before the end of the convention for the event to go overtime.

Fun with leather!

(Former prison guard Karin Ashton was given time to display her first attempts to produce a mini-comic. She also demonstrated how she runs her class for local school-children and wants to do so for profit-prison prisoners, neither of whom have access to the arts. Industry professionals kindly made her feel at ease.)

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Diana, Roberta, Washburn's Totem

The next day, I took Diana, and Roberta Gregory on a whirlwind tour of Neah Bay. We looked at all the First Nations art in town we could find, visited Hobuck beach - Diana's first time to the Pacific Ocean - and stopped in for smoked salmon at the Take-Home Fish Company.

Diana and Donna and the Pacific Ocean

They were nearly out - as they usually are at a festival weekend. But they had enough delicious alder-smoked salmon for us stragglers, and the shop smelled of fresh-cut green alder for when smoking started again (the owner was taking a well-deserved rest and had time to socialize with us. Including commiserating over the shop cat that - poor thing - had to subsist on day-old salmon).

Smoked salmon in Neah Bay

Then it was on to Port Angeles, and a final meal together at the Fairmount Inn and the finest Reuben sandwich and fat salmon. I think we sent Diana back to France with many wonderful memories! Safe travels, my friend.

Winter-Summer Noms!

(And thanks to the Winter-Summer Inn for making our professionals and their families feel right at home and feeding them so well.)

The 2018 Clallam Bay Comicon guest artist will be self-publishing master Carla Speed McNeil, author of the popular sci-fi-fantasy comics series "Finder." Preparations are already in the works to ease her long trip to the "Impossible Comicon."

(Note: if we're very very VERY lucky, there may also be a comicon in Forks next year, run by their comics community. Fingers crossed! I want a table.)

And here are even more photos, from Bob Stein! Thank you very much for coming all the way from the east coast, with Eric Schndeider, letting me visit with two old dear friends again.